Comments on: Richard Branson of Virgin on business, specifically our business http://www.360conferences.com/blog/2008/12/richard-branson-of-virgin-on-business-specifically-our-business Organizing events that DON'T SUCK Thu, 20 May 2010 14:56:24 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Jeffry Houser http://www.360conferences.com/blog/2008/12/richard-branson-of-virgin-on-business-specifically-our-business/comment-page-1#comment-62 Jeffry Houser Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:42:00 +0000 http://www.360flexsummit.com/?p=45#comment-62 I've spent quite a bit of time reading business books in the past year (and quite a bit telling other people they need to read such books). This post made me think of two of them.<br/><br/> You talk about picking an area and differentiating yourself. I recommend doing this for both 360|Conferences [the company] and 360|Flex [One 'line' of conferences you put on]. What is the differentiator and how can you communicate that? Currently the 360|Flex site has no differentiating characteristic. A great book on this is Jump Start Your Business Brain by Doug Hall ( http://www.amazon.com/Jump-Start-Your-Business-Brain/dp/1578601797/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229373486&sr=8-1 ).<br/><br/> You also mentioned the goal is to turn 360|Conferences into a great company. For that, I'm reminded of the book Good to Great by Jim Collins. ( http://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Companies-Leap-Others/dp/0066620996/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229373561&sr=8-1 ). It is an in depth research study on different companies and why some excel over the long and others don't. Warning, though, although awesome information; it can be a bit dry. And no tech-specific companies are covered because at the time of publication none had been around enough to qualify--I think they looked at 30+ years of historical data. I've spent quite a bit of time reading business books in the past year (and quite a bit telling other people they need to read such books). This post made me think of two of them.

You talk about picking an area and differentiating yourself. I recommend doing this for both 360|Conferences [the company] and 360|Flex [One 'line' of conferences you put on]. What is the differentiator and how can you communicate that? Currently the 360|Flex site has no differentiating characteristic. A great book on this is Jump Start Your Business Brain by Doug Hall ( http://www.amazon.com/Jump-Start-Your-Business-Brain/dp/1578601797/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229373486&sr=8-1 ).

You also mentioned the goal is to turn 360|Conferences into a great company. For that, I'm reminded of the book Good to Great by Jim Collins. ( http://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Companies-Leap-Others/dp/0066620996/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229373561&sr=8-1 ). It is an in depth research study on different companies and why some excel over the long and others don't. Warning, though, although awesome information; it can be a bit dry. And no tech-specific companies are covered because at the time of publication none had been around enough to qualify–I think they looked at 30+ years of historical data.

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